The return of The Social Organization

Something went wrong in our strive to build more efficient organizations during the 20th century. How come so many employees of the 21st century feel that their companies are without a higher purpose, their workspaces uninspiring and their organization and processes bureaucratic and obstructive to getting things done?

On top of that many employees experience a huge disconnect between access to the open, social and collaborative tools and social software for private use – and the closed and rigid systems and structures of corporate software.

” 71% agree that it is easier to locate “knowledge” on the web than to find it within their internal systems.”
Source: AIIM Industry Watch Collaboration and Enterprise 2.0, 2009

We need to reboot organizational thinking of the 20th century

We need to reboot organizational thinking of the 20th century and once again build efficient, innovative and responsive organizations based on trust, openness and collaboration.

Source: http://youcube.us/cubicle-21/

”The only irreplaceable capital an organization possesses is the knowledge and ability of its people. The productivity of that capital depends on how effectively people share their compete nce with those who can use it. ”
Andrew Carnegie, 1835-1919

Some would claim that organizations have always been social. Some would even claim that ‘social’ is what constitutes an organization. But what then happened during the 20th century that changed the dynamic of open, engaging and social organizations? Watch Lee Bryant’s provocative summary of how management of the 20st century have resulted in huge crisis for many big corporations of the 21st century.

What’s the potential of The Social Organization?

The potential of a more social and networked organization is not only to become more innovative and responsive to customer feedback – it is also to be more productive.

Every new organizational trend and enabling technologies has its skeptics. So is the case with The Social Organization, The Networked Organization or Enterprise 2.0 as it’s often refered to. CEO’s, CFO’s and CIO’s have seriously questioned whether Enterprise Social Software and Social Media contribute possitive to business performace.

What’s the R.O.I. of being a social and networked Enterprise?

A new McKinsey research clearly link being a more social and networked organization to higher productivity, better innovation and faster time to market. A new class of fully networked companies is emerging – one that uses social media and collaborative software intensively to connect employees and to extend the organization’s reach to customers, partners, and suppliers.

The Social Organization – Leadership perspectives

Open, transparent and collaborative organization challenge the traditional Leadership role. In this interview with Gary Hamel, Google CEO, Eric Schmidt talks about the corporate culture of Google and shares some of the leadership thinking behind leading on transparent, social and very innovative organization.

Open Leadership – The new Leadership role

Lars Kolind, Chairman, Author and Entrepreneur shared his view on the Leadership role of the future at a LeaderLab event in September 2010. How do you tranform companies into movements? What’s the power of meaning? And how do you lead open, transparent and social organization of the future?

[vimeo]http://www.vimeo.com/15388683[/vimeo]

Below are some of the great stuff we stumpled upon and was inspired by.